Angélique du Coudray
French, c.1712 – 1794
Angélique du Coudray became a registered midwife in Paris in 1740. At the time, the state of France’s childbirth was dire, with some estimates of about 200,000 babies dying in the country per year. Du Coudray soon became highly regarded in her field and, on the orders of Louis XV, she set about educating other midwives – particularly in France’s poorer, rural areas. One of du Coudray’s innovations was the creation of a life-sized birthing mannequin (purportedly using real pelvic bones) for teaching, which she named simply ‘La Machine’.
